The Beauty and Problem with Contrasts

While going through the process of painting my bedroom this past weekend, I realized how many old routines I had been carrying along with me that may not have served me anymore. This time to refresh my room gave me the opportunity to do a little spiritual refreshing, as well.

I've been thinking a lot lately about the expectations that I have on others, and how that can limit me from being my best self. In this episode, I share some stories about expectations from my past, and some thoughts on how I have started implementing a practice of living a life free of them. I hope you enjoy!

We're usually taught to look forward, and definitely avoid looking back. Backtracking is always bad, right? But when I started my gratefulness practice, I stumbled across a technique that helped ensure I could always find something new and wondrous to be grateful for, no matter where I was. In this episode, I share my thoughts on what I call "Gratefulness Backtracking".

When we define things, we can see the distinctions between them in the contrast. Sometimes, those contrasts are beautiful. Sometimes they can lead us to judgements. About ourselves, or others. Let's talk about the beauty and the problems we can find in contrasts this week.

I got a magnifying lens in my shop recently. It made my life better, but it also showed me all my mistakes! I also learned a valuable lesson about the Problem with Magnification.

We've all experienced situations where someone or something set us off on a rage for one reason or another. Feeling weak? Powerless? An injustice? What if those situations had nothing to do with the other person and could be used to help us on our own healing journey? This week, I go a little deep and talk about personal healing by noticing the things that trigger us.

What if simple changes in the words you use or the actions you take could have huge implications in the world around you? This week, I talk about a personal breakthrough I had, and how it changed the way I interact with everyone I come in contact with.

This week's episode was, as all good episodes are, I feel, inspired by my cat. Watching him compare his food bowl to the others in the kitchen got me to thinking about our own tendency to compare our lives to someone else's or to some other place we would rather be. Stick around to the end where I share a practice that has helped me start to shed the comparison game and replace it with a new one: gratefulness!

Someone recently asked me about how I would split my life up into phases, which was an interesting question I had never thought of before. In this episode, I tell a bit of my story and share why I think of my life in terms of calm waters, riding the waters with the sails down, but the rudder up, and then finally putting the rudder in the water. Enjoy the ride!

This week, I'm talking about changes in plans, taking left turn, and watching when things don't go as planned.